vegan_rossco wrote:Goddamit you guys! This is borderline online bullying hahaha. In all seriousness though I do get a pretty sore spine/shoulders when I don't use it.. Am I doing something wrong? :/

Hey dude, I didn't mean to offend, so sorry if it came across that way.

When you squat, is it high-bar or low-bar? When the bar is up high there might be a tendency to let it roll up on your spine, which does not give you happy vertebrae. With a lower bar position, it should be sitting on more muscle, giving it more natural padding. It all depends on the type of squatting you are doing. If you are going more Olympic, then the torso needs to be more upright and the bar should sit high. If you are powerlifting then the bar can sit a bit lower, although you will find that your body mechanics need to compensate for the bar position - the lower the bar the more difficult it will be to get past "parallel", but going full depth that way still closes the knee joint.

In either case, make sure that you squeeze your shoulders back to give the bar some meat to sit on. I find doing that also helps me keep my chest up and my back arched. If you aren't already doing mobility work, I highly recommend shoulder dislocations and squat-to-stands at the start of each workout.

Over time, with proper form, your body will adapt to the strain of the bar on your back.

Sorry if you already know all this and were looking for something else, but this is what I've got. Anything else on my part would be speculation and that's not worth a damn.

Ahha of course guys, just a bit of banter I was kidding too no offence here, well I haven't gone pad free with the bar for a very long time to be honest.. Maybe I'll go pad free next session and then if I do get pain I'll know I'm doing something wrong and refer back to asparagus' advice, cheers for the post asparagus

klaatu21 wrote:sensai ross, forgive me for doubting you and myself

Mini Forklift Ⓥ wrote:There's only one thing I'm riding at 6am, and it's not a bike!

vegan_rossco wrote:Ahha of course guys, just a bit of banter I was kidding too no offence here, well I haven't gone pad free with the bar for a very long time to be honest.. Maybe I'll go pad free next session and then if I do get pain I'll know I'm doing something wrong and refer back to asparagus' advice, cheers for the post asparagus

Amazing dude i see you are onto 5x5 . I have just started my 8 week cycle too last week , although i am starting kinda low coz of the 2 months gap but i am sure i will be back in nos by the time i end it . I'd have suggested starting just a little lighter on deads too along with everything else . It really feels awesome as weights keep going up . Do you have the StrongLifts Tracker Excel sheet ?If not let me know i will mail that you it really helps you to track stuff .

My predicted nos by 1st July with a constant increase should be around -

Squat - 100kgsDeads - 120 kgsBench/Rows - 65kgsOHP - 55kgs

Put up your nos too and we'l try and get the goals done by the stipulated time . What say ?

Yo! I know I probably should have gone lighter on deads but where I can do 145Kg for reps now and you only have to do one set of deads each time I decided to go a little heavier, I don't have the spreadsheet but I've got it all penciled down, mostly because I'm not sticking to the weeks. By that I mean I'm just training every other day and occasionaly adding extras or taking days off, so I can't really stick to a spreadsheet.I'll pencil up some more weeks later, I've only written up 5 weeks so far

klaatu21 wrote:sensai ross, forgive me for doubting you and myself

Mini Forklift Ⓥ wrote:There's only one thing I'm riding at 6am, and it's not a bike!

My weight's right down at the moment at 76.5Kg! I'm hoping to keep this up throughout the summer and then bulk at the end of august! My target is a 380Kg total (powerlifting) and keep my weight down around 74/75Kg until september

klaatu21 wrote:sensai ross, forgive me for doubting you and myself

Mini Forklift Ⓥ wrote:There's only one thing I'm riding at 6am, and it's not a bike!